AMOR VINCIT OMNIA; GRANGER

XII.

( second thoughts )

THE NEXT DAY MILO AND HERMIONE had dark circles underlining their eyes, showing that the two were awake for almost the whole night — which they were — but through the tiredness they had a content smile adorning their features, well at least Hermione smiled, Milo just looked a bit less annoyed than usual.

Both couldn't stop thinking about the things they had talked about over the night or the laughs they had shared. 

"Why are you in such a good mood today?"Harry asked Hermione suspiciously at breakfast.

For the past few days Hermione hasn't been smiling a lot, because she was stressing too much over his third task (was what he thought).

Though she did look happier, she also looked much more tired with her hair all over the place and her uniform wasn't put on as neatly as it always was. Harry was seriously concerned about what had happened to her overnight; he had never, in their four years of knowing each other, seen Hermione with her tie being a bit loose.

Hermione had a lie already prepared, "Nothing, I'm just happy because Professor McGonagall agreed to let us use an empty classroom for you to practice."

"Fantastic," Ron exclaimed with sarcasm dripping from his voice. "We get to study even more."

Rolling her eyes, Hermione hit him with a book, "Oh, shut up. It wouldn't hurt you to also know those spells Harry is learning, you know?"

Huffing, Ron turned back to his food, but Hermione knew that he would go with her and Harry to the empty classroom and help them figure out all of the spells and practice them.

The curly haired girl took a look around the Great Hall, trying to spot a certain Slytherin, which wasn't that difficult, seeing as he was sitting right next to Malfoy, laughing with the group he was sitting with about something.

She was a bit confused, for the (short) time she had known him, she hadn't noticed that he hung out with Malfoy and the other Slytherins that always insulted her and her friends.

Doubts started to cloud her mind. Was he just meeting up with her to get a good laugh out of the muggle-born girl taking interest in someone out of her league? Was he just playing with her? Were they laughing about her and her naivety?

No, it couldn't be that, could it? He was the one who approached her first, he was the one who made her feel better about not knowing something, he was the one who had asked her so much about herself and listened so intently as she told him about the things she liked, about her family and about her cat.

No, he wasn't, couldn't be, like that.

Just as she was about to interrupt her staring to continue talking with her friends, not wanting to think more about Milo, he glanced up and winked in her direction, looking her straight in the eyes for a short second, before turning back to the other Slytherins.

Okay, no, Hermione just liked to overthink things, Milo Bähr wasn't that kind of person. At least she hoped so.

Milo Bähr, who comes from a long line of pure-bloods and additionally is a Slytherin and the son of former Death Eaters, had met up with Hermione Granger, a muggle-born girl that is in Gryffindor, already twice.

As he sat at the Slytherin table, absentmindedly playing with his food, he didn't even notice Malfoy talking with him.

"Milo? Could you listen to what I'm saying?" the younger boy exclaimed in frustration.

Finally snapping out of his thoughts, Milo looked at the Malfoy boy, "What were you saying?"

"You seem a bit out of yourself today," Draco stated, though he didn't really care that Milo was acting differently in respect to other days. "Anyway, I was just saying that Potter probably won't last long in the maze. My father told me that there are going to be quite dangerous things in it, which will make it even difficult for someone as amazing as Viktor Krum to get through the labyrinth."

Milo chuckled, pure-bloods here in England really did like their gossip, "Krum? I don't think he has anything other than a golden snitch in his brain." Looking at Viktor who was sitting not too far away from them, he added, sounding a bit bitter, "And of course Granger."

Draco also looked over at Viktor Krum who was sitting with other Drumstrang students, however instead of talking with them, he just stared over to the Gryffindor table, right at Hermione. It was almost as if he was trying to burn a hole into her back with how intensely he stared at her. (Milo just hoped that he didn't look like that when he was admiring her.)

"I still don't get how someone like him could have taken a mudblood to the Yule Ball," was all that Draco said, turning back to his breakfast as he was shaking his head in disappointment at his idol's actions.

Milo smirked as he looked at Blaise Zabini who was sitting opposite of him. "What? Are you jealous that he didn't take you?"

With this harmless joke he tried to overplay the anger he felt, and judging by the laughs of the boys sitting around him, he guessed that he was successful. Although, he did wonder why he felt so angry when Draco insulted Hermione and talked about her in a disgusted tone.

Theodore continued on with their conversation, "Who do you think will actually win?"

Blaise shrugged as he looked across the Great Hall like Milo did, eyeing all of the champions, as if they hadn't already seen them often enough. "With how much the teachers and everyone else seems to be favoring Potter, I think he'll make it."

Draco scowled at that, knowing that Blaise was right. "I heard Moody helped him with the first two tasks, like directly. I don't think Diggory gets that kind of support from our professors."

"I don't like the guy all that much," Milo spoke up, "But Diggory's probably the only one who's competing fairly, with only his knowledge and the work he puts in. Without any help from others."

They all nodded, as they looked over to the table of the professors where Dumbledore and McGonagall were chatting happily with each other.

All of them wondered when it was their time to show the rest of the school how much potential they all held in themselves.

It was obvious that here, in this school they would never get that, always being perceived as the evil ones and maybe one day all of them will break and finally give in to all of the expectations everyone has of them; and then they will all be sorry for having treated them like that.

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

a bit of a shorter chapter but oh well, the last one was long enough i think

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 𝖆𝖒𝖔𝖗 𝖛𝖎𝖓𝖈𝖎𝖙 𝖔𝖒𝖓𝖎𝖆!
hermione granger x milo bähr !
✎ᝰ. -NEPTUNXS